Everyone says the one seated upon the Dragon Throne is the emperor!
But to Gu Yuan, it has never been the emperor who ascends the Dragon Throne. The one who sits upon it is the emperor!
In the twenty-first year of Wende, Princess Zhaoping's wild behavior at a nighttime banquet was exposed before everyone. Her reputation was ruined, and she became an object of scorn.
In the years that followed, Princess Zhaoping changed her ways and openly consorted with many young men from powerful clans behind closed doors.
These salacious royal affairs were little more than street gossip, hardly matters of national importance.
Yet years later, this very woman, once regarded by the world as wanton and shameless, used the power those men had paved the way for her to claim, step by step, until she took the throne.
My father once told me many times that it was a pity I wasn't a man. With my talents, he would surely have entrusted the empire to me.
I had thought about it too. I should accept my fate and live out my life quietly as a princess!
But even though I gave way, those people still wouldn't leave me alone.
They used chastity as a trap, turning me into a wanton woman in everyone else's eyes. From then on, no young man from any powerful clan would associate with someone as impure as me.
Perhaps this was fate!
At that moment, I understood. For a woman, chastity is a shackle. For a man, it's merely a romantic dalliance.
It isn't because men and women are different, but because men sit on the Dragon Throne and men hold power at court.
So from that moment on, I swore that if I became emperor, a woman's chastity would no longer be a stain upon her.
(This story could be considered a prequel to Wusheng. It tells the story of Gu Wu's mother, Gu Yuan, the first empress of Nanwu.)
Theme: The one who sits upon the throne is the emperor
